Surging Respiratory Viral Infections Cases Highlight Cracks in America's Healthcare Workforce

As the country celebrates Halloween, Orange County in California is also experiencing one of the most frightening things in healthcare. An alarmingly high number of children were admitted to the hospital due to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection. Due to that, the county has declared a health emergency.

Experts said that the respiratory viral infection that causes colds and lung infections in all ages has come earlier this year and is the biggest contributor to increased hospital admission at the local children's hospital. Hospital staff is getting their hands full because of the increasing number of patients and they are getting creative with emergency department spaces to accommodate all patients.

RSV in Children

According to HealthyChildren.org, RSV is one of the many viruses that causes respiratory illness. It usually occurs during the late fall through early spring months.

Mask-wearing and physical distancing protocols during the COVId-19 pandemic have reduced the cases of RSV in 2020. But once the health measures were lifted, a rise in RSV cases began in the spring of 2021. This year, RSV and other seasonal respiratory illnesses have started earlier than usual.

RSV symptoms in children typically start as a cold followed by bronchiolitis or pneumonia. symptoms could last an average of five to seven days. Cold symptoms include fever, cough, congestion, runny nose, sneezing, fussiness, and poor appetite.

Bronchiolitis could follow with cold symptoms along with fast breathing, flaring of the nostrils, head bobbing with breathing, rhythmic grunting during breathing, belly breathing, tugging between the ribs or lower neck, and wheezing.

Infants are more susceptible to respiratory viral infections, especially those 12 weeks old or younger, premature or low birth weight infants, chronic lung disease, babies with heart defects, those with weak immune systems, exposure to secondhand smoke, and history of allergies, not breastfeeding, and being around children with symptoms.

Fortunately, children usually recover from RSV infection with proper care. But it is advised to immediately seek medical help if symptoms persist or worsen within three through five days.

Health Care Staffing Shortages During Respiratory Viral Illness Outbreak

The surge of multiple respiratory viral infections at once is indeed scarier than Halloween. The number of children catching the virus in the US is causing healthcare staffing shortages that started well before the COVId-19 pandemic.

Morning Consult reported last year that 1 in 5 healthcare workers have quit their jobs during the pandemic and nearly one-third of nurses said they plan to leave direct patient care jobs by the end of this year. It results in inadequate hospital staff to meet the needs of the patients swarming emergency rooms.

RSV is labor-intensive to treat so there is a high chance of it causing enormous stress on a healthcare system when labor is in short supply, Vogue reports. The struggle in hospital staffing highlights how far the US is in solving its healthcare workforce problems. There are solutions but it remains unclear when they will be put in place to meet the crushing wave of respiratory viral infections this winter.

That is when lots of people unexpectedly get very sick with RSV all at once in which personnel and space are spread very thinly. Even spaces intended for other purposes will be used to accommodate patients. But filing up the emergency departments and intensive care units can be dangerous as shown by multiple studies.

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